What is the "employee experience"?

What does the employee experience (EX) mean exactly? According to Bersin by Deloitte, it is the sum of all the touchpoints an employee has with their employer, from their initial (active or passive) job application to the day they leave the company.

The employee experience encompasses three main work areas: the physical, the cultural, and the technological work environment. If one of these pillars is wobbly, it can have a negative impact on employee engagement. Each pillar represents a touchpoint between the employee and enterprise that effects employee satisfaction.

Employee engagement and the employee experience have a causal relationship in that EX impacts employee engagement. If your employees experience a very positive working atmosphere due to the culture, technology, or physical environment at your enterprise, this can increase their engagement. If your employees have negative experiences at work, it will become more difficult for them to remain consistently motivated even if they are quite happy performing the work itself.

To get to HXM and the human focus, we have to explore new questions, such as “What makes an experience great?” and “How can technology support this experience?”.

The concept of the employee experience is becoming increasingly important for many enterprises. Several renowned companies have already created the new position of CEEO (chief employee experience officer), to acknowledge the significance of the employee experience to their business. According to a Forrester study, a growing share of HR managers believe that EX is highly important to the current and future HR strategies of their businesses.